Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc won on the streets of Monte Carlos in Monaco and finally broke the bad luck. If it weren’t for the strong emotions accompanying the quest for victory after too many disappointments, it could be described as an easy win. His Ferrari SF-24 was unchallenged for the endless 76 laps after the restart and the fact that there was no need for any more pit stops made life easier for the Maranello pit wall and the Monegasque driver, who only had to carefully manage the lead of the race.
The most formidable opponent in the qualifying session was Oscar Piastri, who also had a 10-point aerodynamic load loss due to the incident with the Ferrari SF-24 car of Carlos Sainz at the start, which was insignificant when running three seconds off the real pace, but even in a true head-to-head battle, it would have been impossible for the McLaren MCL38 car of the Australian to stay in the slipstream.
Charles Leclerc’s pace management concealed a much higher potential: his SF-24 single-seater could have lapped up to one second faster than his personal best race time. The Monegasque could only fight to preserve the hard compound to the point of boredom as insurance against unforeseen events and Bryan Bozzi did not use diplomacy to convince him. Charles Leclerc’s engineers had no reasonable reliability fears; the replacement with a fresher Power Unit for the qualifying session was purely precautionary, and in the race, engine 1 was reinstalled to do its job. The current power units have reached a lifecycle of 8000 kilometers , and the pace at which the race was run eliminated any potential risk of technical issue.
The restart eliminated the only strategic uncertainty due to possible undercuts; in the battle with McLaren, the only concern was not to allow a big gap against George Russell, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to avoid giving Lando Norris the possibility of stopping to mount a set or brand new tires. Charles Leclerc dominated his anxiety and Carlos Sainz played the team player role faithfully; the two Maranello drivers executed the established plan perfectly and Oscar Piastri’s race could only be a consequence. The chasing group consisted of Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers, but the tire selection chosen negatively compared to the first start forced George Russell to maintain a Formula 2 race pace to save the softer compound and therefore fend off Max Verstappen. For the Dutchman and Red Bull, it was a difficult weekend; however, he can console himself by looking at Sergio Perez’s disastrous qualifying performance, not to mention the collision with Kevin Magnussen, which destroyed an RB20 car. This means a damage of about 2 or 3 million, as confirmed by Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko. Indeed, excluding the older Power Unit, it’s said to amount to 2 million. This is a significant hit to the finances of the Austrian side, especially under the current regulation of the budget cap. A concerned source revealed that if Red Bull have more damage, they might have to abandon or postpone an upgrade at the end of the season, as revealed by F1 journalist Giuliano Duchessa for formu1a.uno.
The Monaco Grand Prix must be considered an extreme race in terms of performance, which makes it legitimate to expect a quick reaction from Max Verstappen and the Dutchman will most likely return to fighting for the race win in the next round of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Monte Carlo weekend allowed Charles Leclerc to reflect, get emotional, and think beyond driving, feeling a sense of liberation two laps from the end when he could hardly see anything anymore due to the tears in his eyes. This experience is expected to help him grow as a driver. Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur noted that the weekend marked a significant step forward for Charles Leclerc in terms of progress and remained calm about the possibility of victory. Charles Leclerc had also promised to jump into the water, taking Fred with him. After the dives, the celebration continued late into the night, with the entire Maranello team invited to stay up and celebrate. Fred Vasseur himself did not miss out on the celebrations and allowed an exception to the usual Monday schedule.
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